Image © Emilio Scoti
Comacchio, Italy 2025
Just a few steps from the famous Trepponti city monument, visitors to Comacchio can take a journey back in time across thousands of years. The Museo Delta Antico (Ancient Delta Museum) is dedicated to the history and civilizations of the ancient Po River Delta, a crucial crossroads for trade and culture, and a renowned, fertile agricultural landscape.
Located in the grand, restored 18th‑century neoclassic building known as the Ospedale degli Infermi (Hospital of the Sick), the Museum’s collections are impressive. More than 2,000 artifacts from prehistory through the Middle Ages reveal the rich histories of this major hub for trade and commerce between East and West. Its galleries explore key themes such as changes in the delta landscape, the role of waterways in trade, and the development of local centers such as the Etruscan city of Spina.
Units
6
One of the main attractions is the Valle Ponti wreck – a remarkably well-preserved Roman commercial ship from Comacchio, dating to the late 1st century BCE. Discovered in 1980 during drainage work just outside the city, the wreck was first identified through scattered wooden fragments. Excavations revealed a 21-meter hull, buried alongside bronze votive figures and an exceptionally intact cargo that included amphorae, tools, everyday objects, and 99 stamped lead ingots. The ship’s rapid burial beneath layers of sand and fine deltaic sediments created a low-oxygen environment, which dramatically slowed deterioration and preserved both the hull and its contents to an extraordinary degree.
The result is one of the most complete Roman riverine wrecks ever found in Italy, offering an unparalleled snapshot of commercial life more than 2,000 years ago. Its fragile wooden structures and heterogeneous cargo demand conservation systems of the highest performance, capable of stabilizing organic and inorganic materials with precision over the long term.
Given the significance and conservation demands of these materials, the Museum undertook a major renewal of the Valle Ponti gallery. In 2024, Goppion was commissioned to work on six showcases dedicated to the ship’s cargo, developing new conservation-grade systems to support its long-term preservation and legibility.
This project is a significant example of our commitment to sustainability and innovative retrofitting solutions. Instead of manufacturing entirely new display cases, we carefully adapted existing showcases dating back to the 1980s — whose elegant design still holds strong aesthetic appeal. By adding state-of-the-art, airtight internal cases to these structures, we significantly enhanced their conservation performance, meeting today’s strict preventive conservation standards.
This approach not only preserved the historic and stylistic integrity of the original installations, it also reduced costs and environmental impact. In fact, retrofitting all six display cases cost our client the equivalent of buying just two new ones.
As an additional cost-saving measure, we painted the rear sides of the glass panels on-site at the Museum, rather than pre-painting before delivery. This avoided significant expenses associated with transporting the display cases to our workshop in Milan, and back again. Performing the painting directly at the installation site eliminated shipping logistics, reduced overall costs, and also streamlined project execution.
Overall, this project is a good demonstration of the potential of thoughtful, sustainable retrofitting – an approach now valued and adopted by an increasing number of museums and galleries around the world.